A Catholic physician once related to me a powerful story about one of his patients, who had just received a diagnosis of advanced, metastatic cancer and had a relatively short time left to live.
Author: Kevin Wondrash
Can government change definition of marriage?
Dear Friends,
For this week’s column, allow me to pose the question, “Does any civil government have the authority to change the definition of marriage, either directly or indirectly?”
Staying young through laughter
I learned about God’s humor from Sister Gregory, a delightful Franciscan nun who was staff advisor for my high school newspaper.
As editor, I had to “put the paper to bed,” meaning write the last headlines, cross all the t’s, and dot the i’s before going to press.
One night we had to work right through dinner time and both confessed we were hungry.
Sister excused herself and returned after a moment with a heaping, fragrant bowl of popcorn.
Pray for Mary’s intercession
Dear Friends,
We are fast approaching, not only the end of the summer season (where did it go?) but, far more importantly, Our Lady’s day in summer — that is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.
Make your vacation time a holy time
Dear Friends,
I hope that summertime has brought some welcome rest and recreation for all of you. I particularly pray that you have been kept safe from the serious consequences of the recent, extremely hot weather. Let us, during these days, pray for our sisters and our brothers for whom the extreme heat poses some special problem.
Sexual attractions and the call to chastity
People often surmise that same-sex attraction is inborn, and that homosexuals are “naturally gay” or “born that way.” They suppose that if God made them that way, then it must not be a sin to act on their sexual desires.
The possibility of a “gay gene” is sometimes offered as a further defense, suggesting that the condition, and its associated behavior, are inevitable and inescapable.
One commentator summarized it this way: “Asking someone to stop being homosexual would therefore be equivalent to asking an Asian person to stop being Asian or a left-handed person to stop being left-handed.”
Farm fresh and fabulous
Some of my fondest memories of my childhood in the ‘30s were the Sunday afternoon visits to our country cousins.
We’d all pile into Daddy’s new model Chevy, (he sold them, so we always had a new one), drive the 20 miles or more to run in the fields, jump in the hay mow, and watch the animals warily, keeping a safe distance.
Marriage and true Eucharistic living
Dear Friends,
The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is such a beautiful and important day for us, and the reality which we celebrate on that day has such an impact that its themes bear repeating. I hope you’ll forgive me if I look back a bit to the great Feast of Corpus Christi, which we celebrated on June 26, and reiterate a few thoughts which I shared in my Stational Mass homily.
Happily fulfilled in old age
I was fascinated by an article I read this morning over my coffee and cereal.
It was in the July issue of Ladies Home Journal, and written by Michael J. Berland, president of a polling and research firm, who states, “Sure, her family makes her happy, but despite what society expects, a woman’s sense of fulfillment comes from being independent and having a sense of control over her own life.” He calls this the silver lining on that recession cloud because it has driven so many women to become actively involved in their family finances.
Does Church have doubts about brain death?
The Catholic Church has long acknowledged the role of the medical professional in declaring death. It is the proper competency of medicine, not theology, to identify reliable signs that death has occurred.
The hardening of the body known as rigor mortis, for example, is a reliable medical indicator that death has occurred. When the heart permanently stops beating and the lungs permanently stop functioning (cessation of cardio-pulmonary function), medical professionals recognize these signs as another reliable way to assess that death has occurred.